Wounded Hearts
by Lila Toretto Barton
Summary: Vincent is a former solider getting over his cheating ex while running a bar with his best friend JT. Cat is a detective getting over the death of her mother that still haunts her and running from an abusive ex. Can these two wounded souls find love together? Will new love heal the wounds of their hearts?


**Summary: **Vincent is a former solider getting over his cheating ex while running a bar with his best friend JT. Cat is a detective getting over the death of her mother that still haunts her and running from an abusive ex. Can these two wounded souls find love together? Will new love heal the wounds of their hearts?

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**One**

Cat sat at her desk in her new precinct with her partner Tess going over cold cases. Tess had been injured last week and was told to take a couple weeks to relax so their boss, Joe, had given them cold cases to go over until Tess could go back out. Cat had moved back to New York City to live with her sister, Heather, a year ago after a bad breakup with an even worse guy. It seemed that since the death of her mother Cat had chosen relationships with guys who were just bad all around. Here in New York she was able to start over from that and she even made new friends with her partner Tess and had frequent girls nights with her and Heather.

Catherine had cut her long dark hair so that it was up to her shoulder's and tried to avoid getting close to men because it seemed that the death of her mother left a bigger hole then just that loss. Catherine looked up from the file she was reading when she felt a piece of crumbled up paper hit her in the face and saw her partner smiling.

"Very mature Tess," Cat joked throwing it back over to her.

"Wasn't trying to be mature Cat I was trying to get your attention," Tess said leaning back and crossing her arm which was a little difficult with the bandage she was wearing on her right bicep.

"Well what is it?" Cat asked impatient.

"Heather met this guy, J.T., who is kind of a nerd in my opinion but he's cool and the two of us want to know if you would like to go to a bar tonight," Tess asked looking at her like she was waiting for her to say no.

"What's so different about this bar then the one we've been going to?" Cat asked suspicious.

"J.T.'s friend owns it and Heather works there but she's never gone on her day off and figures that it's time she did," Tess answered rolling her eyes.

"Fine we can go but I swear if this is a set up I will make your life and my sister's a living hell," Cat threatened pointing a pencil at her friend.

Tess didn't say anything just laughed before the two went back to their work. Cat normally wouldn't care about trying out a new place but she knew her sister very well and after befriending Tess the two of them had made it their life's mission to find Cat a good guy and well she wasn't having it. It was bad enough that she had a hard time trusting and opening up given the death of her mother and the bad boyfriend's she's had but her sister and friend weren't helping matters either. Secretly, somewhere deep in her heart hidden from her and the world, Catherine was praying that one day she would find a nice guy that would love and respect her for everything that she was.

Vincent cleaned the bar off waiting for the busy hour to arrive. The ex-Army officer had moved to New York City after he had gotten back from his deployment to find his now ex-fiancé cheating on him with a doctor she worked with at the hospital they worked at. Before the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, Vincent had been going to medical school but his brothers died that day and to honor them he had decided to join up with the Army. He was a doctor there and after seeing all that death and destruction Vincent found him changed and couldn't go back to being a doctor when he was discharged. He had gotten home that day praying that Alex would understand and instead found her with another man. After that Vincent packed up his belongings and moved to New York in an apartment that he lived in with his longtime friend, J.T.

J.T. Forbes was a professor at Columbia University and upon hearing what happened with Alex took him in and gave him a place to stay. Vincent had money saved over after paying back his school loans and didn't know what to do with it. It seemed that he was going to drink it away hiding in the apartment but then J.T. took that option away when he gave Vincent an ultimatum of either moving out or growing up and figuring out what he wanted to do. It was this motivation that made Vincent open up a bar and grill called The Beast. It was pretty popular with the colleges but Vincent always made sure that i.d.'s were always checked because he knew that some students had fake ids and he didn't need that in his bar. J.T. met a woman, Heather Chandler, at his university and she had become friends with the professor.

Heather had talked to J.T. about the fact that she was already had a degree in fashion but that it didn't seem to be enough so she was going back to school for a business degree but it was hard because the job she had was a temp job and she lost it so she was jobless. After her ranting J.T. had come to Vincent and asked him to give the girl a job so he did, mainly because he trust his friend's judgment and mainly because the girl was good looking and didn't take shit from anyone which was a plus for him. Also Heather never came here on her days off drunk off her ass and causing problems. That afternoon the girl had come to him asking if it was cool that she came there tonight with her sister and friend and Vincent told her that he really didn't care as long as she didn't cause problems.

Trisha, Katelyn, and Spencer were his other three employees. Spencer was the bartender and she did an excellent job while Katelyn was the chef of the house making excellent burgers, gumbo, friend chicken, fries, and other general barbeque foods that people loved to have when they came to a bar to watch a game. Trisha like Heather was a waitress who again like Heather didn't make a fool of herself and didn't take any shit from anyone.

Vincent was finally done cleaning up the place when he heard Trisha announce that the crowd had arrived and it was time for chaos, as the workers of The Beast liked to call it, to start. He rolled his eyes and smirked because it was time to help Spencer at the bar and to once again be hit on by every girl in the bar, single or not. Vincent didn't want any girl though, he wanted on that wouldn't cheat on him or judge him for not wanting to be a doctor anymore. He also wanted his dream girl as J.T. called it to not look at him like a freak because of the scar on his face but while he still held out hope for a girl like that he was also starting to give up. When would he, Vincent Keller, finally find his soul mate?


End file.
